Month: May 2009

G.ho.st Launches API To Enable Third-Party Web Applications

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G.ho.stG.ho.st, the free open web based operating system / virtual computer, has launched an API aimed at allowing third party application developers to add any web-based application to G.ho.st easily and with a tight integration to the system’s data and preferences.

The API allows the following specific functions (all subject to appropriate user consent)

  • Allow a user to launch a third-party web application visually integrated in a window on the G.ho.st Desktop
  • Allow the third-party to rely on G.ho.st authentication to effect single sign-on
  • Allow a file to be passed to the web application for viewing/editing and to be saved back to G.ho.st Drive
  • Provide a full file system to the web application by offering full read/write access to the user’s G.ho.st Drive using Webdav
  • Pass user preferences like language, font, etc. from G.ho.st to the third-party application

The API is designed to be very light weight with a simple convenient approach to launching third-party applications by a URL and passing data as parameters to that URL.

The API was also built to be completely technology agnostic; accepting any web application with any backend as long as it is launched in a web page through a URL.

These web applications have to be hosted at the web application developer’s own expense on any server or platform of their choice, as G.ho.st currently don’t provide any hosting for these third party applications. A special case exists for applications that can be compiled into a single file.

For more details on the API, check the G.ho.st API Page.

Intel Capital Invests In Two Jordanian Companies Jeeran And ShooFeeTV

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Intel
Jeeran
ShooFeeTV

In a joint press conference today in Amman, Jordan, Intel Capital‘s latest investments in the Arab internet scene were announced.

These new investments from Intel Capital are in Jordanian internet companies Jeeran, one of the leading user generated content portals in the Arab world, and ShooFeeTV, a free online Arabic television guide. Both companies are also IV Holdings portfolio companies.

This comes among Intel Capital’s ongoing push in the region, supporting local entrepreneurship in the Middle East and funding companies in the internet and technology sectors through its $50 million Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey Fund, which is aimed to assist the companies in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending their product offerings.

Under the umbrella of this fund, Intel continues to increase its investment in four key areas: local entrepreneurship, education, digital accessibility and specialized technical competencies, to help promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and jobs creation.

As has become custom for most such investments in the Arab world, the size of these investments has not been disclosed.

H2O New Media Announces SODA CMS With Support For Location Based Services

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H2O New MediaH2O New Media has just announced the availability of the SODA Content Management System which they describe as the first Web 2.0 Content Management system to support location based services.

These location based services should allow members of any social community built on the SODA content management system to send its users emails, SMS messages and alerts based on a users physical location.

Steve Vaile, CEO of H2O New Media, says that “The SODA CMS allows any community member to receive notifications either by SMS, MMS, Video or by email to their mobile phone based on their location. The development will enable our publishing and corporate customers to offer innovative new services and applications to their customers and internal based on location and vicinity on their mobile phone. Social communities should operate seamlessly between both web PC & mobile handsets, and with SODA taking advantage of location based services its really one of the first social media technology platforms to create a bridge between the online and the physical world.”

He continues to say that “with SODA a customer can deploy a social media platform that will allow its users not only to communicate with each other but to know where each other are, based on their preferences of course. For example if you are a member of a social community you can receive an SMS text when you are close to your friends, marketers can use it to message users are close to a store that has a promotional offer.”

H2O New Media provides social media applications based on software as a service (SaaS) model to corporate companies in the Middle East. H2O New Media clients include United Business Media, Sian Events, Channels Exhibitions, CSM, G2 Publishing and many other leading events and media companies.

Jawaker Adds To Advertising Options With Game Table Changes

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Jawaker

Jawaker, the online multiplayer card games website that was previously reviewed here, and whose co-founder Mohamad Haj Hasan was interviewed here, has introduced some new changes to their game table, expanding the available advertising options on the platform.

The upgrades on the game table aimed to make it more user friendly for users, but also to adapt to the needs of their advertising clients.

Among the major changes on the game table is a re-organization of certain elements like the information bar and chat box, to make it easier for users to see more information in a more convenient way.

But more importantly, in addition to their original ad serving model of branding the back of cards, they’ve introduced the possibility to have a watermarked logo of the brand on the game table itself as well as a text ad on the right side of the table that pushes the message that the advertiser wants to relay to their audience. This text ad has a link to the advertisers target URL.

Jawaker Table

Jawaker currently have the popular cards games: Trix, Trix Complex, Solitaire and Tarneeb; and plan to roll out more multi-player card games in the future.

Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship Organises The Entrepreneurs Week – May 16-21 (Amman, Jordan)

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QRCEThe Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship is organizing a really interesting event ‘The Entrepreneurs Week‘ between 16th-21st of May, in Amman, Jordan.

The event aims to open an interactive discussion with a number of interesting international speakers who will speak about several important topics in Entrepreneurship, Business and Management.

The topics to be discussed are the following:

  • BlueOcean Strategy: How to transform a new business idea into a winning strategy
    Speaker: Mohammad Ajlouni (Managing Director, MDS)
      
  • Identifying your Strengths as an Entrepreneur
    Speaker: Ronald Evans (CEO, SIMA International)
      
  • Idea to Reality
    Speaker: Habib Haddad (Co-Founder, Yamli.com)
      
  • Innovation in Open Networks – Perspectives from an Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist
    Speaker: Joi Ito (CEO, Creative Commons)
      
  • Cross-cultural business issues as companies expand internationally
    Speaker: Doug Christgau (Director, Cross-Cultural Development)
      
  • The current U.S. and world financial market situation.
    Speaker: Larry Hutchins (Certified Financial Planner, Wachovia)
      
  • Insights into family-owned companies in regards to economic and human resource issues.
    Speaker: John Carmon (President, Carmon Community Funeral Homes)

The event is free of charge. For registration or any further information, you can check out their website http://www.qrce.org/eweek or call +962 6 515 4892.

If you’re registered to the StartUpArabia Events iCal feed in your calendar software, the event should already be showing up in your calendar for the days of the event.

Tunisie Telecom To Launch Venture Capital Arm ‘Diva Sicar’

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Tunisie TelecomMontassar Ouaili, the CEO of Tunisie Telecom, the first Tunisian telecom operator in Tunisia, recently announced that the company will be launching a venture capital arm in partnership with STB Bank and BH Bank.

The new venture will be called “Diva Sicar“, and will be officially established as a subsidiary of Tunisie Telecom on May 19th.

It will have 20 Million Tunisian Dinars ($US 14 Million) in capital, and will be concentrating on projects in the development, innovation and value-added services areas.

Tunisiana, which is Tunisie Telecom’s only competitor so far in the mobile space, also recently announced a new fund for value-added services.

Tunisie Telecom is 65% owned by the Tunisian state, with the remaining 35% owned by TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, which they acquired in 2006.

Conservus International Wins Red Herring 100 Europe Award

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ConservusRed Herring recently announced that Conservus International was named a winner of the Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

Conservus International is responsible for the conceptualization, design and development of a digital targeted advertising medium known as the MyConservus Portal.

The MyConservus Portal is an e-concierge service which highlights services available at a single location and provides advertisers with direct access to potential consumers while generating revenue from these advertisements.

Conservus International has similar e-concierge portals that can be used in the Hospitality, Business and Community sectors, and seeks to expand the MyConservus portal’s reach internationally by entering into potential franchise discussions with technology companies.

Conservus was one of the three UAE based technology companies that got an investment from Intel Capital earlier this year, and are also an IV Holdings portfolio company.

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Hotels.com Launches Arabic Website For The Middle East

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Hotels.comHotels.com, one of the leading hotel accommodation booking sites in the world, has announced the launch of its Arabic website in the Middle East.  The website is available at http://fanadeq.hotels.com and uses IP based country recognition, an Arabic-language interface and local currency pricing and payment methods.

Hotels.com, is part of the Expedia group, and currently operates 52 global sites. Expedia announced in the summer of last year that it would be launching a dedicated travel portal for the Middle East within the following 12 months, and it seems this is the result of that effort.

Covering the key markets in the Middle East, the new website aims to offer competitive, value for money rates at over 100,000 hotels worldwide. As well as the hotel booking function, the site also offers in-depth hotel information including Microsoft mapping capabilities and property facility information. The site also includes destination information and customers reviews all in Arabic.

Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director of Hotels.com commented, “By launching our new website in Arabic, we are committed to unlocking the full potential of the Middle East market. Our goal is to offer our customers an accommodation booking service with extensive choices, great value prices and excellent customer service.”

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) barometer, the Middle East is already the world’s largest driver of travel, tourism and hospitality, with the sector fuelling the region’s current annual tourism growth of 11% per annum.

The Middle East has seen a steady growth in e-commerce over the last few years with an increasing number of consumers using the internet to buy products and services. One of the fastest growing categories for e-commerce across the globe is travel as customers are increasingly choosing the internet to look for the best deals.

Online Media Creativity Workshop – Amman, Jordan (18-22 May)

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The Royal Film Commission of Jordan and Creative Commons, in cooperation with the SAE Institute in Jordan, are launching the first “Online Media Creativity” workshop to be held in Amman, Jordan.

The free workshop will be held from the 18th till the 22nd of May 2009 at the SAE Institute, for four hours daily from 1:00 pm till 5:00 pm, during which both theoretical and practical instruction will be offered.

Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, is going to conduct the workshop, which is developed in cooperation with Royal Film Commission of Jordan.

The workshop is the first of its kind in the Arab world, and will be dealing with issues like how to produce and distribute an audiovisual with the help of social media and networks. It is open to all Arabs of all nationalities and countries (they just have to make it to Jordan).

This step comes to try and open the field of cinema and traditional audiovisual production to new media and try to understand how creativity could be improved through peer-production and network distribution by using open licenses such as Creative Commons.

Participants will benefit from Joichi Ito’s extensive media expertise in:

  1. Acquiring knowledge on the major changes occurring in the audiovisual field with the advent of digital media.
  2. Acquiring necessary technical skills to start producing and distributing one’s own digital media.
  3. Enabling young Arabs to professionally produce online content and share it with the rest of the world.

To apply, you should email the following to programs@film.jo:

  1. A personal resume, indicating any relevant previous experience.
  2. A cover letter indicating, in at least 100 words, the reason for applying.
  3. Clearly including your name, email and telephone number.

Deadline for submission is Tuesday 12th of May 2009.
For more information, you can contact the Royal Film Commission on: +962 6 461 3835 Ext. 101

[Via: mediaoriente]

KuWeet, Your Window To Kuwaiti Tweets

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One of the biggest factors of Twitter’s success and popularity is the wealth of third party tools and solutions built around it and using its API.

Just recently, I came across an interesting little project built around Twitter that aims to open a window on tweets coming out of Kuwait, and about Kuwait, by the name of KuWeet.

The way it was built is really simple: an account @kuweet was created for twitter users in Kuwait to follow, and then what happens is that all followers of this account are collected and placed in a list. All tweets originating from people on this list are then aggregated into a a public timeline of Twitter users from and about Kuwait.

kuweet

According to its developer, it’s based on an integration of Twitter2html into WordPress, with a theme that is pretty much identical to the Twitter interface.

New tweets are fetched every 10 minutes through a planned cron process.

KuWeet is a project by well-known Kuwaiti blogger and tweeter @nibaq.